Artie's Kitchen, in West Street announced it had permanently closed on Saturday (April 22), bidding farewell to customers on Facebook.”Unfortunately we are now closed permanently,” the status update reads. “This is with great sadness and much love to our regular customers and staff.”

A further update posted to the eatery’s website thanked customers for their ‘love and support over the years’ and attributed the closure to ‘rising costs, staffing issues and the impossible competition from restless chains’.

The restaurant served a variety of meat, fish and vegetarian tapas, alongside a bar service – often to rave reviews from customers. It had a 4.5 star rating on TripAdvisor, where diners regularly praised the quality of the food, the friendly service and the convivial atmosphere.

Italian restaurant Prezzo on West Street also closed its doors for the last time on Monday this week.

A total of 46 branches of the Italian restaurant chain are closing across the country, with approximately 810 workers at risk of redundancy.

Chichester Observer readers reacted to the loss of a major franchise restaurant.

Most commenters seemed to think the restaurant should be turned back into The White Horse; a popular pub which closed some time before Prezzo moved in.

"So many pizza places closing in Chichester,” said one Carol Bower. Time to turn it back into a pub maybe.”

"Reopen The White Horse,” Paul Helyer added. “I reckon I bought that place twice over with the amount of money I put over the bar in the late eighties/ early nineties.”

Others bemoaned the loss of a well-established city centre eatery. Reader Connie Holland commented: “We must have been one of the last ones in there. That’s a shame.”

Others still see the closure as a sad indictment of the world around us – an appropriate response, since owners cited increasing energy and food prices as one of the reasons Prezzo branches up and down the country have closed.

“Sad but you can see why it's happening, people can barely afford their weekly shop let alone luxuries like eating out,” said reader Sophie Sorrell.”

'Great sadness' as independent restaurant in Chichester closes its doors for the last time